In Bruges

Introduction

Martin McDonagh burst onto the scene with his Oscar-winning short Six Shooter and followed it up with his first feature, In Bruges. McDonagh once stayed in Bruges and was amazed by the beauty of the medieval Belgian town but, after a few hours, was bored out of his mind and decided to write a screenplay, splitting himself into two separate characters.

Ken and Ray (Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell) are two Irish hit men, when Ray's first hit goes wrong and accidentally kills a young boy, they are ordered to lay low in Bruges and wait for a call from their boss Harry (Ralph Fiennes). Ken loves the picturesque town, can't get enough of the culture and the atmosphere whilst Ray is the world's worst tourist - he doesn't see anything special in the city and the only thing he wants to do is have a drink.

Ray is haunted by his mistake and his melancholy rubs off on Ken, a father figure, whose mind is expanded by the evocative architecture and culture. This isn't just a deep character study as Ray's obscenity filled outbursts and quick temper land him in trouble with American tourists but get him a date with local drug dealer Chloë (Clémence Poésy). During a memorable night in a restaurant and her apartment and a drug addled encounter with racist dwarf Jimmy (Jordan Prentice), Harry finally calls and the 'vacation' takes a new turn.

Video

It's practically impossible to make a bad looking film in Bruges and McDonagh makes full use of the beautiful city, shooting in just about every place of note. The quick turnaround from theatrical to DVD release means that the transfer is flawless.

Audio

The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is clear and presents the dialogue, which dominates proceedings, very well and when the shooting starts the surrounds wake up and respond accordingly.

The English HoH subtitles are well written and follow the dialogue faithfully.

Extra Features

There are 18 minutes of deleted and extended scenes which don't beg to be reinserted for a director's/extended cut. There is also a gag reel with 6 minutes of actors fluffing their lines and missing cues. Sadly these are not anamorphic, nor a great watch.

The 14 minute When in Bruges featurette has Martin McDonagh talking about genesis and development of the project and is a worthy addition to the package.

In Strange Bruges McDonagh, the cast and some members of the crew talk about the city as a filming location, as a place and recreating the now closed bell tower for shooting.

A Boat Trip Around Bruges is a video of a canal trip around the Flemish city whilst some facts about Bruges scroll along the top and bottom of the screen.

F**kin Bruges is a montage of all the expletives (of which there are many) in the film, condensed into one piece which runs at over 90 seconds - I thought there were a lot but didn't realise there were so many.

Conclusion

In Bruges is an extremely well written character piece that, like Pulp Fiction, shows the human side of hit men and their ordinary nature. I can imagine that Bruges is a lovely place to spend a day or two, but not the sort of town to stay for any length of time and so the attitudes of Ray and Ken are both understandable. I'd probably be a bit like Ray but, though I would probably have a discussion about suicide rates amongst midgets, I can't imagine myself punching a stranger over a snide remark about smoking.

Martin McDonagh is a man who really knows how to write dialogue and the interplay between Ray, Ken, Chloë, Harry and Jimmy is full of humour, pathos and intelligence. His direction is less assured with the pace occasionally dragging but his writing keeps it from ever becoming anything less than engaging.

In Bruges is a film that stands up to repeat viewing - I enjoyed it at the cinema and again on DVD - and, with a decent but not great extras package, this is well worth your time and money.

Universal

Sadly, along with Illegal Tender, this is the last release from Universal that I will review until they stop behaving like a bunch of paranoid idiots and see fit to trust reviewers instead of annoying them with burnt in 'Property of Universal Pictures International Entertainment' warnings and insisting that every disc is returned ASAP to the PR company. It doesn't stop piracy - a quick look on the Internet revealed nearly 100 DVD downloadable copies of the film before I'd even received the disc - so only serves to irritate those who give their time and effort (without financial recompense) to Universal releases. Universal is a big studio, it's time it grew up and behaved like one.